HD Upgrades for Melrose Community Acce Include Broadcast Pix Granite 5000 System

Over the past decade, Melrose Massachusetts Television, Inc. (MMTV), the community access station for the City of Melrose, Mass., has been aggressively upgrading its production equipment. In January, the station made the move to a native HD production workflow with new cameras and an upgraded control room built around a Broadcast Pix Granite 5000 integrated production switcher.

MMTV produces a variety of original programs, including After Hours, a talk show that is shared with other regional stations, and Sound Stage, which showcases local musicians. The station also covers parades and other local events, and supports the local city government and educational channels.Original programs are available in HD on YouTube and presented locally in letterbox SD on Comcast and Verizon FiOS.

In 2010, the nonprofit community organization upgraded to an SDI workflow and a Broadcast Pix Slate 5000 integrated production switcher. While the station researched other switcher options for the HD upgrade, it chose to stick with the reliability and flexibility of Broadcast Pix. We wanted to keep the same abilities that we had with the Slate, said Chris DeThomas, MMTV engineer. It is wonderful. The hardware is a professional surface and the PixPad is great.

Access A/V of Concord, N.H., handled the integration for the HD upgrade project. The Granite 5000 was installed in January, along with an upgraded monitor wall, Behringer audio mixer, Blackmagic HyperDeck Studio disk recorder, Clear-Com digital intercom system, Lectrosonics wireless IFB and JVC ProHD cameras. The Slate 5000 was then deployed to a local middle school for student productions.

DeThomas is very pleased with the HD upgrade. It is everything that we have always wanted in our control room, he said. We have a completely professional space.

Primarily driven by volunteers, MMTV programming is produced by people with varying degrees of production experience. MMTV uses Granites built-in Fluent-View customizable multi-view to accommodate both volunteers who prefer a more simplified setup and production veterans who want more information on screen.

We customize it for different users, DeThomas explained. We have average folks producing for the first time, plus pros who bring that professional touch to the station. Everyone feels comfortable coming in it makes the room not as intimidating.

MMTV has also customized its Granite to manage productions in both of its studios. The four-camera Studio A is the default, but the control panel can quickly change to a new layout for three-camera Studio B productions. Were able to control two studios with one switcher and do it well, DeThomas said. Thats a great feature.

www.broadcastpix.com.

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